Pathways to Climate Adaptation Policy Adoption by Local Governments

ABSTRACT This study examines the role of public support, climate risks, and local government capacity in the adoption of innovative climate adaptation measures, such as nature‐based solutions (NBS; e.g., green infrastructure, urban greening initiatives). I collected climate policy documents from 20 US cities published after 2010 to investigate whether each city has adopted NBS in its climate plans. Using qualitative comparative analysis, I found that: (1) high public support alone is neither necessary nor sufficient for NBS adoption, (2) high public support and high climate risk can jointly promote NBS adoption, (3) when public support or climate risk are low, high local government capacity alone can sufficiently enable NBS adoption. This paper ends with a discussion of how local governments prioritize resources and efforts to strengthen their resilience to the impacts of climate change.